It's unethical for a public hospital to offer private rooms or more advanced medical devices for an extra fee, the National Council on Medical Ethics writes in a new report.

Today, patients in a few counties in Sweden are given the option either to get the standard - state financed - treatment or to pay extra out-of-pocket to get private rooms, more advanced hearing-aids or higher quality contact lenses.

This is highly unethical and causes an even bigger gap in the quality of care given at different hospitals, the Coucil writes on newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

"Public healthcare should be for everyone, based on their medical needs and not on their ability to pay," the Council writes in its report.

The Council is now working on national guidelines to bridge the gap in quality between different hospitals.